In the same manner the storthing regulates all loans, on the theory that the money belongs to the people.  The members of the ministry may be impeached by the odelsthing for a violation of the constitution and tried before the lagthing and the supreme court.

The following eight executive departments are in charge of ministers: 

1.  For ecclesiastical matters and public instruction, which also has charge of charities, insurance companies, and matters relating to the relief of the people.

2.  The department of justice.

3.  The department of the interior, which has jurisdiction over everything that is not under the other departments.

4.  The department of agriculture.

5.  The department of public works.

6.  The department of finances and customs.

7.  The department of defense.

8.  The revision of public accounts department.

For administrative purposes, Norway is divided into twenty districts, viz.:  The cities of Christiania and Bergen and eighteen “Amts” or provinces, which coinside with the diocese of the church, and there is a very close relation between the ecclesiastical and the civil authorities.  The chief magistrate in each of the counties, nominated by the king, is known as an “Amtmand.”  His duties are similar to those of the French prefects, although the theory of home-rule and self-government is carried into each county and each municipality and parish, where every magistrate is responsible to a council elected by the people from among their own number.  They make the laws for the magistrate to administer.  There are few countries in which the theory of self-government is carried to such an extent as in Norway.  The sovereignty of the people is absolute and their rights are jealously guarded.  Norway is divided into ecclesiastical parishes, which are the voting districts, as in England, and are governed in a similar way.

The Norwegian constitution of 1814, based upon the principle of popular self-government, declared these municipalities completely independent in the management of their own affairs, placing the administrative authority, with the power of taxation and the disbursement of revenues in the hands of the taxpayers and householders, so that they could not be coerced by the national government, if there ever was any disposition in that direction.

This authority is exercised through a council called a “bystyre,” composed of from twelve to forty-eight members, according to the population of the parish, who are elected for terms of three years, and serve gratuitously.  The council elects from its own number a chairman who is the head of the whole municipal organization, and is known as an ordfoerer.  He corresponds to the German burgomaster and the mayor of the American city.